Leslie Barlow Commissioned to Create 2022 MN State Fair Commemorative Artwork

Leslie Barlow is this year’s Commemorative Artist for the Minnesota State Fair! The 2022 Minnesota State Fair Official Commemorative Art was the 18th in a series of artwork created by Minnesota artists for the Great Minnesota Get-Together.

Barlow’s commemorative oil painting depicts a group of her friends frozen in time, like a candy-colored nighttime snapshot of youthful exuberance at the fair. At the center, a stuffed animal sits on one of her friend’s shoulders.

Barlow is the first Black woman and woman of color to be commissioned in the Commemorative Art program, which launched in 2004.

Read more in Sahan Journal’s article and interview here!

Leslie Barlow MAEP Exhibition at Mia

Creator: Charles Walbridge | Credit: Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Art | Copyright: © Minneapolis Institute of Art

Leslie Barlow’s MAEP exhibition “Within, Between, and Beyond” explores representation, race, family, and belonging. Comprised of both paintings and video interviews, the work shares stories of 16 Minnesotans who use the terms mixed race, multiracial, and/or transnational/transracial adoptee to identify themselves and their lived experiences. “Within, Between, and Beyond” invites us to hold space for, recognize, and reconsider our presumptions about race in Minnesota.

Within, Between, and Beyond is on view in the U.S. Bank Gallery from July 26, 2021 through October 31, 2021

Read more about the exhibition and related programming here!